LeGrand underwent surgery Saturday night at Hackensack University Medical Center after he was injured making a tackle on a kickoff in the fourth quarter against Army. He lay motionless for seven minutes while his neck was immobilized, then was placed on a backboard and taken to the New Jersey hospital.

Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif., this month won approval to test its promising stem-cell treatment for spinal cord injuries–the first time this category of treatment has been done on human patients– and is seeking patients with spinal cord injuries no more than a week or two old. This has led to a flurry of posts on Yahoo’s GERN stock message board about whether LeGrand could be a candidate. However, according to commenters on the board, his injury, at the C3-C4 level of vertebrae, is too high on the neck to qualify.

Recovery doesn’t always require new treatments, though. Penn State player Adam Taliaferro, who suffered a spinal cord injury 10 years ago and defied medical experts by walking again within eight months and making a full recovery, sent a message to LeGrand and his supporters.

Everyone around him — his friends, his family, his teammates — have to keep it positive. He’s facing some tough times ahead. He needs to stay in a positive frame of mind. That made a difference for me.